TELUS turns on LTE network in Fredericton, New Brunswick

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Earlier reports of LTE coming to Fredericton, New Brunswick were correct. TELUS announced today that those visiting or residing in the area will be able to connect to their LTE network, thus giving them faster upload and download speed (expected average of 12 to 25 Mbps). TELUS’ LTE coverage reaches about 24 million Canadian, or about 70% of the population. Looking at the map also sees future expansion that will triple the LTE coverage in the region.

Source: CNW

Facebook close to buying Waze for up to $1 billion

Facebook close to buying Waze for up to $1 billionFacebook is reportedly close to buying Israeli start-up Waze for a reported fee of $800 million – $1 billion.

The news was broken by business daily Calcalist, reporting that due diligence is underway and a term sheet was signed. Waze specializes in satellite navigation, and uses members’ smartphones to generate maps and traffic data.

In October 2012, it partnered with Facebook to let users share their drive with friends through the social network.

If bought by Facebook, it will be the third acquisition of an Israeli firm by the social giant, after buying Snaptu for $70 million in 2011, and Face.com for $60 million last year.

Microsoft offers Fix It tool for serious IE8 security issue

Microsoft offers Fix It tool for serious IE8 security issueMicrosoft is offering a Fix It tool for concerned users of Internet Explorer 8 that addresses a security vulnerability being exploited in the wild.

The flaw (CVE-​2013-​1347) was exploited as part of an attack on the U.S. Department of Labor’s website and its users. Visitors who were running the vulnerable Internet Explorer 8 browser had their computers infected with malicious software.

The issue does not affect any other version of Internet Explorer, but many home and business users still run the ageing web browser.

Microsoft has not yet issued a proper patch for the flaw, and so as a temporary fix it is offering concerned users a one-click Fix It tool that you can get at microsoft.com.

 

BlackBerry Messenger for iOS, Android coming in summer

BlackBerry Messenger for iOS, Android coming in summerBlackBerry has confirmed that its popular BlackBerry Messenger – or BBM – will be available for users of Android and iOS devices this summer.

BBM will be supported on iOS 6 and Android 4.0, or later. It marks a change in BlackBerry’s services strategy, where once BBM was a major drawing factor of BlackBerry devices. Now, with so many former customers using iOS or Android devices, the company is willing to open it up to other platforms allowing those lost customers to keep in touch with their old BBM contacts.

“For BlackBerry, messaging and collaboration are inseparable from the mobile experience, and the time is definitely right for BBM to become a multi-platform mobile service. BBM has always been one of the most engaging services for BlackBerry customers, enabling them to easily connect while maintaining a valued level of personal privacy. We’re excited to offer iOS and Android users the possibility to join the BBM community,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President, Software Product Management and Ecosystem, at BlackBerry.

BBM has more than 60 million monthly active customers, with more than 51 million people using BBM an average of 90 minutes per day. BBM customers collectively send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, almost half of which are read within 20 seconds of being received.

BBM’s move to iOS and Android relies on approval from Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

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“Rogers Bank” given the go ahead by the Minister of Finance

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The Minister of Finance has granted Rogers the necessary papers to incorporate “Rogers Bank.” This is part of the carriers plans to offer credit card services, expand deeper into the mobile wallet, plus initiate a customer loyalty program.

According to the press release it notes that “Rogers has twelve months to move forward with the application process to meet the requirements of an Order to Commence and Carry on Business. Upon meeting the requirements for the Order to Commence, Rogers will have the approval to begin offering credit card services.”

A couple weeks back Nadir Mohammed, President and CEO of Rogers, stated that “Your wireless device already acts as your phone, your camera, your computer… in the next five years it will act as your mobile wallet. For you this means safely storing all your information in one place… from credit cards to transit passes. For Rogers it means a new business that leverages the trusted security of the SIM… we’ve already partnered with CIBC and look forward to working with all of the other banks.”

Source: Rogers

Google+ Hangouts app now available for iOS and Android

Google announced a replacement to its Talk platform today called Hangouts. The unified cross-platform messaging tool brings text, photo and live video hangouts to mobile and the web, and it is now available on iOS and Android, as well as the web through a Chrome extension.

Hangouts stay in sync across devices, and with the newly-announced Google Cloud Messaging APIs, so do the notifications. It’s a great tool that we’ll look at more in-depth in the coming days.

Download Hangouts for Android and iOS.

Via: Gmail Blog

Google I/O to only have one keynote, focus on both Android and Chrome

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The schedule for this year’s Google I/O conference has been posted and it appears that Google is consolidating its traditional dual keynotes — one for Android, the other for Chrome and “miscellaneous” — into one three-hour event on the first day, May 15th.

While this isn’t necessarily an indication that the company is merging Android and Chrome, it’s certainly a sign that the two departments are working closer together.

Expected to be announced during the keynote is a new version of Android, 4.3 Jelly Bean, as well as a unified messaging platform for Android and Chrome called Babel. Other rumoured features include a Google-branded gaming hub and the Motorola X Phone, as well as the possibility of a 32GB LTE-capable Nexus 4 and a new Snapdragon-powered Nexus 7.

All will be revealed in due time, and we’ll be there to cover everything.

Via: Google I/O

Netflix to lose large amount of titles this month

Netflix to lose large amount of titles this monthInstantwatcher, a company that catalogs Netflix’s streaming catalog says the site will lose almost 1800 titles in May.

All 15 seasons of South Park are set to disappear as are some older films like Goldfinger and Dr. No. Netflix’s current licensing deals with MGM and Warner Bros. and some other studios are set to expire.

The drop will be the largest since Netflix’s deal with Starz expired last year, but many of the movies in this case are on the older side.

Netflix had this to say (via Verge): “The vast majority of the titles that expire on Wednesday are older features that were aggregated by Epix. We recently added many great, more recent titles such as ParaNorman (Universal), Hunger Games (Epix), Safe (Epix) and Bachelorette (Weinstein). Tomorrow we will also add MI:2, among many other titles.

Netflix is a dynamic service, we constantly update the TV shows and movies that are available to our members. We will add more than 500 titles May 1, but we also have titles expiring, this ebb and flow happens all the time.”